Guardian Service Demonstration Dinner

In its day, Guardian Service ware was sold door-to-door, often at neighborhood parties where a salesman would prepare a demonstration dinner. Similar to the later Tupperware parties, the sales strategy relied on showing the product to the customer first-hand. The salesmen prepared and presented meals to highlight their pitch: the economic and nutritional advantages of waterless cooking the "Guardian Service Way." The hostess would receive a caddy of highball glasses with matching coasters or candlesticks or salt and pepper set, or other such gift. These dinners were often publicized with listings in the social register, such as the one pictured below.

A typical Guardian Service Demonstration Dinner notice
from the Granite Falls Press, WA (June 19, 1947)

Last week we recreated the Guardian Service Demonstration Dinner (while trying to keep our "Knights of Nutrition" proselytizing on medium low). We packed up the Guardian Service Roaster, Duplex Pan and Economy Trio Cookers, and the Beverage Urn and Coffee Maker and prepared a dinner for eight at our friend Nancy's home in Venice. Among those in attendance were our friend Dirk (who we discovered had sold waterless cookware in his college years) and Sam Watters (author of the LA Times' Lost LA feature on our Guardian Service cookware collection).

We wanted to cook an elegant dinner that would showcase the key advantages of Guardian Service Ware (the economy and nutrition of stove-top, waterless cooking) with fresh, local, seasonal fare, so we left planning the menu until we shopped our ingredients, starting with the cut of meat.

The family farm on which I was raised in North Dakota maintains a small herd of free-range beef cattle which are integral to its organic, bio-dynamic, self-sustaining ecosystem. Here in Los Angeles, we're fortunate to receive most of the red meat we consume from my family's farm, so we never really consider buying beef raised in a feed-lot Cowschwitz. Regular outbreaks of food-born illness have heightened public awareness of the health and environmental risks involved in raising and eating hormonally and genetically modified animals. Whenever possible, we look for a butcher who sources meat from ranches employing ethical, humane practices.

We've been reading and hearing about Lindy & Grundy for over a year and thought what better way to showcase the Guardian Service Roaster than with something special from this excellent charcuterie?

Proprietress Amelia Posada greeted us at the door with a friendly hello—fresh as milk, raven hair tied up in a red kerchief with Bow lips stained to match, a Rosie the Riveter of the Rib Roast. I told her what I had in mind and how many we were serving and she presented a butterflied leg of lamb, artfully trimmed and aged to perfection (and as with all their meats, local, pastured and organic). We'll be back to try the half beef/half bacon ground mix Amelia recommends for a blue cheese-topped burger…

As we shopped for produce at the Farmers Market at Fairfax and 3rd, I surfed some recipe sites for inspiration. All the local organic vegetables and spices we needed were available for the seasonal Persian lamb dish below. We altered a few ingredients from the original recipe, roasting the garlic and jalapeño in advance to mellow and sweeten their effects on the meat.

We prepared one pot each of carrot coins, red and white new potatoes and red and white cabbage in the Guardian Service Economy Trio Cookers (or "triangle pans" as they're often called). And for dessert: a lemon pound cake cooked stove-top in the Duplex Utility Pan, topped with fresh strawberries muddled with brown sugar and plain yogurt and served with Guardian Service Coffee.

Roast Garlic Stuffed Leg of Lamb

inspired by Fakdeh Mehshi Khodra

2 cups chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 cup chopped fresh mint leaves

25 cloves garlic, peeled, roasted and mashed

2 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp finely chopped jalapeño pepper

2-3 carrots, sliced in half lengthwise

1 large onion, quartered

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1 tsp fresh ginger, minced

2 tsp salt

1 tsp black pepper

4 1/2 pounds boneless leg of lamb, butterflied, trimmed of excess fat, rinsed, and patted dry

1 pound onions, halved

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1 cup red wine*

1 Tbsp cornstarch or flour

*Verjus, a sour grape juice, is traditional for a Muslim recipe. Vinegar and wine are a fine substitute.

1. Lightly coat 2 dozen peeled garlic cloves in a small or medium sized pot. Cover and place over medium high heat for 5 minutes, until lid is warm to touch, reduce heat to low and roast for 30 minutes, shaking pot occasionally to keep cloves from sticking.
2. Add minced jalapeños and continue to roast additional 5-10 minutes. Remove pot from heat and allow to cool.
3. Using a food processor or blender, blend the roast garlic and jalapeño together with chopped mint and parsley and set aside.
4. Rub the dry spices and ginger into the prepared cut of meat, massaging well.
5. Spoon a ribbon of the garlic paste into the center of the cut and roll into a roast, securing with kitchen twine.
6. Heat 1-2 Tbsp of olive oil in the Guardian Service Roaster over medium heat and coat bottom of pan well. Add the roast, searing each side for 90 seconds. Remove roast, add the halved carrots and quartered onion to the bottom of the roaster to form a cooking rack to support the roast. Return roast to pan, add any remaining garlic paste to the top,  and sprinkle generously with cider and wine.
7. Cover and cook over medium low heat for 1.5 to 2 hours, depending on desired temperature of the finished roast. Allow to rest for 15 minutes, carve and transfer to the Guardian Service Roaster platter. Garnish with roasted carrot and onion and cover until ready to serve.
8. Reduce the remaining roast and vegetable drippings over medium low heat, adding a tablespoon of cornstarch or flour mixed an equal amount of water or wine to the gravy to thicken, if desired. Serve with roast and vegetables.

Rubbing spices into the lamb

Adding the roast garlic-jalapeño-mint-parsley paste

Rolling and trussing the roast with kitchen twine

Searing all sides of the roast seals in the moisture

The prepared leg of lamb resting on a vegetable rack, ready cover and roast

For advice on preparing the carrots, potatoes and cabbage, visit our previous blog post on cooking vegetables the "Guardian Service Way."

Guardian Service Lemon Pound Cake

Adapted for the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan. Serve warm or cold. Make ahead, freezes well.

1/2 pound (2 sticks) butter

1/2 cup sugar, more if desired

4 eggs, beaten

2 lemons, juice and zest

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup sour cream

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1. Blend butter until creamy, add sugar, then eggs and lemon juice and zest.
2. Sift together remaining dry ingredients and fold together with remaining wet ingredients.
3. Spoon into heated, buttered Duplex Utility pan, close and cook for 13-15 minutes on medium low heat. Flip pan and cook additional 13-15 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and allow to rest unopened an additional 10-15 minutes.
5. Open pan and gently run a knife along the edge of the cake to loosen, remove to baking rack and cool. Slice and serve with fresh strawberries and yogurt.

Tasty cake, stove-top

Don't miss our other blog posts with recipe ideas for the Guardian Service Duplex Utility Pan and instructions for making Guardian Service Coffee.

Guardian Service Basics: Rice

Though I love rice, it didn't appear in regular rotation in our diet until we looked to it for economy, nutrition and body building. I lack the knack, the Rice Touch. A product of Russian/German and Swedish/Yankee Puritan ancestry, rice rarely featured in my families' menus and though my mother attempted to produce "Chinese Restaurant" rice at my request, it was never her signature dish. Despite various methods promising consistent perfection, I often wound up with a gooey mass.

Enter Guardian Service. I've written about a couple of other staple foods that, prepared the "Guardian Service Way" won us over to the waterless cooking method, potatoes and coffee in particular. When we discovered how easily Guardian Service produces flawless rice (brown, white, basmati, long and short grain), we experimented with other neglected cereals and grains with equal success: grits, barley, buckwheat, wild rice*, quinoa, kamut, spelt, amaranth...

While the mid-century recipe below calls for washing and rinsing the rice until the water runs clear, domestically-processed rice has already been cleaned and rinsed of excess starch prior to packaging. You may wish to rinse to remove any packaging dust, but beware over-rinsing: one of the tenets of waterless cooking is the retention of nutrients which are otherwise rinsed or boiled away. "The general rule is to wash imported rices and not to wash domestic rices, which are well cleaned and dried before packaging. Imported rices have plenty of clinging starch left over from the processing." (The Ultimate Rice Cooker Cookbook, Hensperger/Kaufmann, Harvard Common Press, 2003)

FLUFFY RICE
(from Betty Gay's Guardian Service Tested Recipes)
Time: About 20 Minutes (Serves 6-8)

2 cups rice
3 1/2 cups cold water
1 tsp. salt

Wash rice thoroughly in warm water, washing several times until water is clear. Drain, place in unit, add cold water and salt. Start over medium heat until boiling point is reached. Cover, reduce heat to very low until rice kernels are tender. (Do not stir.) Rice may be unmolded from unit by running a knife blade around edge. (Every grain will be tender and separate—no sticking—no soaking required—no waste of rice.) Serve it buttered as a substitute for potatoes—as cereal—as an accompaniment for chop suey or shrimp creole—or use as a basis for nourishing desserts.

Companion Recipe: Rice Pudding—What better way to use up two cups of leftover cooked rice? Note: While the Guardian Service Tested Recipes cookbook does have a recipe for Rice Pudding (which I'll experiment with and blog about soon), it calls for a cup of uncooked rice... and we had plenty of leftover cooked rice.

(Also Note: 1 cup of uncooked rice yields 3 cups cooked rice).

MODERN RICE PUDDING
(Adapted for the Guardian Service Casserole/Tureen
from The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, First Edition, 1950)

2 large eggs (or 4 egg yolks)
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
2 cups milk
nutmeg for flavoring
NOTE: Add vanilla, if desired.

Beat all ingredients slightly to mix and add:

     2 cups cooked rice
     1/2 cup seedless raisins (or chopped dates—a handful of chopped candied ginger added to the mix is especially good).

Pour mixture into the Guardian Service Casserole Unit and set into Tureen Unit over medium flame and cover. Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until sides begin to brown.

*UPDATE: Wild Rice. Soon after posting this blog, we received an email from Goose Valley, a grower of certified organic and natural wild rice in the Cascade Mountains in Shasta County, California. The farm and ranch at Goose Valley work in tandem, reducing the amount of external inputs each operation requires in an effort to farm with a minimum impact on the environment. Nicole, in their Boston Sales Office, asked if we'd like to try some of their wild rice and sent a trio of their packaged rices. 

We started with their spectacular Organic Wild Rice, which has a rich, nutty flavor and couldn't be easier to prepare the Guardian Service way (we used an Economy Trio cooker and prepared vegetables and chicken in the other two cookers, all over one flame for added fuel economy). Simply add 1 cup wild rice to 3 cups water or stock, bring to boil, cover and simmer on low heat for almost an hour, until the kernels become fluffy and tender.

Thanks so much, Nicole!

Guardian Service Chicken Pot Pie

Guest Blog: Andrew makes Mom’s Chicken Pot Pie

There is no dish so beloved in the vast canon of American cookery as Chicken Pot Pie. Every American region has a version, all of them essentially local versions of English and German meat pies of the eighteenth century. The dish is fantastically versatile, yet it makes everyone think of Mom and home. It must rank third, after hamburgers and hot dogs, among our national favorites, and far pre-dates either of them. It certainly was a favorite in the Martin household. My mom Kathi’s recipe is, to me, the gold standard. The crust is exactly what you want it to be: a crisp, crumbly shell that breaks into golden flakes in the gooey ooze of the rich white sauce. Two days in the fridge improves it; eat it cold for breakfast with hot sauce drizzled on top, or wrap it in wax paper for a brown-bag lunch.

I vary the recipe freely; this pie welcomes leftover vegetables, and is as delicious with nutmeg (New England) or saffron (Pennsylvania) as with paprika and rosemary (Kathi’s choice). I suggest you make this pie only for those you dearly love, folk who deserve a little spoiling.

Because it is a steamed pie, it turns out to be the perfect recipe to cook in the Guardian Service Kettle Oven, which yields mouth-watering results. The pre-cooking of the individual ingredients in the Economy Trio "triangle" pots gives exactly the right texture to the meat and the veggies, and cuts down on the baking time, thus reducing the heat in our San Fernando Valley kitchen (as well as our carbon footprint).

Make the crust first; while it’s chilling, pre-cook the vegetables, the chicken, and the sauce in the three triangle pots, then pour them into the pie plate, cover it with the rolled-out crust, and lower it into the pre-heated kettle-canner. Finish it under the broiler for top-browning, if you wish.

Chicken Pot Pie also happens to be spectacularly healthy, with a near perfect ratio of protein to carbs to fats. Served with a green salad or salsa, there is nothing more the body needs. In my benighted twenties I tried obsessively to reduce the fat in this recipe, with more or less miserable results. Now I am older and wiser and see Mom’s wisdom. I use the best butter and cream I can find; you should too.

Kathi Martin's Chicken Pot Pie
(adapted for Guardian Service Ware by Andrew Martin) 

CRUST:
1½  cups all purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1/3 cup butter, chilled, in bits
1 large egg
Tbs. ice water
1 egg beaten for glaze

FILLING:
4 cups cooked chicken, cubed
2 cups cooked carrots, corn, celery, spinach, what you will

SAUCE:
1 Tbs. butter
1 lb. fresh mushrooms, sliced
¼ cup dry white wine (or vermouth or sherry or Madeira)
1 ½ cups heavy cream
2 Tbs. flour
1 ½ tsp. paprika (or handful jalapeno or few grates nutmeg or saffron, cilantro, etc.)
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. pepper
¾ cup chicken broth
fresh–ground black pepper

Prepare pastry in bowl, mixing flour and salt, cut butter in to make coarse crumbs. In small bowl, beat together egg and water, add to flour mixture. Mix lightly til soft dough-ball forms. Shape into a flat disk; wrap in wax paper, chill in fridge 1 hour.

While dough is chilling, chop chicken and vegetables, heat in triangle pots.

In third pot melt butter and cook down mushrooms til browned, reducing water. Bring back up with wine. Add cream and seasonings.  Leave to warm, off heat.

Preheat kettle-canner on high flame.

Combine chicken, vegetables and sauce in pie plate.

Roll out crust on floured surface with floured rolling pin. Place over pie, trimming and sealing edges.  Cut trimmings into shapes if you wish; brush with beaten egg, and ventilate pie with knife-cuts in crust.

Bake in kettle-canner 30 minutes until filling bubbles. Brown 5 minutes under broiler.

Let us know how yours turns out!

For more on baking with the Guardian Service Kettle/Canner, check out a previous post on Devil's Food Cake.

Guardian Service Pizza

Here's a use for the 15" round tray that its makers never imagined: pizza.

The Guardian Service Round Tray was originally designed to carry all three Economy Trio Cookers (it cradles them nicely and might work well as a trivet on a large table or buffet, but to actually carry all three roasters, piping hot and loaded with food, is not as finger-tips breezy as "Doctor Homemaker," pictured below, would lead you to believe.


In the 1935 edition of Guardian Service Tested Recipes, Betty Gay suggests that "your GUARDIAN Round Tray makes an attractive cake plate. With a lacy paper doily on it, it's quite the thing."

But here's an idea to really put this tray to work: pizza—the American Classic that America hadn't yet invented back in the day that these trays were being minted by the good folks at 6000 S. Avalon Blvd in Los Angeles, CA. Some of the finest New York Pizza is cooked on big aluminum rounds and this service tray does the job nicely.

We've baked up dozens of varieties: Pepperoni/Anchovy, Margherita, "Hawaiian" (Canadian Bacon/Pineapple), Barbecued Chicken, Pulled Pork, Pear/Walnut/ Gorgonzola.... And here's New Depression cooking for you: for less than ten dollars worth of ingredients, you can cook up a 5-star Gourmet Pizza that will make you wonder why you ever eat out.


Here's a recipe I whipped up last night to clean out the cupboard, but the method's the same regardless of your choice of toppings:

PESTO PUTTANESCA PIZZA

Pizza Dough, see below

2 Tbsp. Olive oil

3 oz. Pesto sauce (minced basil, toasted pine or walnuts, parmesan and olive oil)

2, 6 oz. cans Tuna, drained and flaked

3-4 Tomatoes, thinly sliced (heirloom, organic)

1 small Onion, thinly sliced, and

3 cloves Garlic, thinly sliced sautéed in

1 Tbsp. Bacon drippings

2 Tbsp. Olive tapenade

1 Tbsp. Capers

8 oz. Mozarella Cheese, shredded

8  Anchovies, whole

PIZZA DOUGH

A crispy, chewy, tender crust. This easy recipes yields enough dough to create a medium-thick crust on the 15" Guardian Service Tray.

1 1/4 - 1 1/2 cups warm water

1 envelope active dry yeast

3 cups flour (for added nutrition and texture, use half all-purpose, half whole wheat flour, or, our favorite combination: 1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour, plus 1/2 cup cornmeal for extra "tooth")

1 tsp. sugar

1 tsp. salt

4 Tbsp. olive oil

oregano or other herbs, to taste

1. Stir yeast into warm water in small bowl and let stand about 5 minutes, until yeast dissolves.
2. Lightly brush a large mixing bowl with olive oil and add the flour, sugar, salt, making a well at the center. Add yeast mixture and olive oil and stir to combine, adding more flour if very sticky, more warm water if too dry.
3. Kneed dough for 10-15 minutes and work into a ball. Drizzle dough with olive oil, cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm area, free of drafts, until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
4. Preheat the oven to 450° F.
5. Punch dough down and roll into a disc. (I've never developed a pizza dough spinner's knack—I stretch it by hand, or roll out the dough between two Silpat mats with a roller pin, then lay it out on the tray). Position dough on the tray, tacking the outer edge of the crust to the rim of the tray.
6. Spread sauce or oil over the crust, then layer with the remaining ingredients, finishing with cheese.*
7. Bake at 450° for 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbling-golden-brown.
8. Let rest for a few minutes, then remove pizza to cutting board (or cut directly on the tray with a silicone pizza slicer, which won't scratch the surface) and serve.

As with all Guardian Service cookware, the aluminum evenly distributes heat, so the crust crisps perfectly (the airpockets created by the hammer-finish help too). 


*Note: If you're planning to really load on the toppings, pre-cook the crust for 5-15 minutes before adding sauce and toppings.